Lang Wu Yao (concept art)

Character: Làng Wū Yáo

Series: Thunderbolt Fantasy

Competition: Crunchyroll-hime’s Cosplay Cup 2022

Convention: Crunchyroll Expo 2022

Rank: Finalist

A glamorous hanfu blended with glamorous Jpop style with lots of beads and flowing details. Lang’s outfit has caught my attention since he first appeared on screen. It gave me a challenge of trying many techniques I never used before. It was also a challenge budget-wise to keep this project from getting too expensive by using unusual budget materials and wholesale fabrics.

Competition information

Crunchyroll-hime’s Cosplay Cup (CHCC) was primarily an online competition. The entire competition was done with a video, making it an incredibly different competition and unique experience. It was an extremely secretive process, and I couldn’t even tell anyone that I got in or what I was doing when I’d disappear into the forest in cosplay until it was formally announced. CHCC got me into making videos and taking more photos of my process when making cosplays.

Build book and pitch portfolio

CHCC had a very difficult proposal process. Everything was done online and you pitched your cosplay, video, and ideas right on digital paper in a pitch portfolio. You only had a few pages to convince the jury that you should be in it. While more competitions are adding portfolios to their jury process, CHCC’s was by far the most extensive I’ve ever done. The contest had a very large selection of examples, and using those, I built mine and became a finalist.

CRX2022 Lang Wu Yao Pitch Portfolio

CRX2022 Lang Wu Yao Finalist Build Book2

Contest gallery

All of the announcement photos had to be another cosplay, as the final cosplay had to be a surprise. The Contestant Photo was shown on stream after the introduction. There was definitely a fun element of sneaking around and doing videos and photos and not saying why.